Stardew Dreams
by La Reine Du Soir
Summary: We all have dreams. Some we trade in for uniforms, others we stow away in chests. What happens when the lock falls off that chest? [This short, little one-shot is based on a conversation you have with Sebastian after you're married, so possible spoilers.] (First shot at writing fanfiction, omg!)


"What are you working on?" I couldn't help myself. I had been trying not to look over his shoulder for the past half hour, walking back and forth between the chest by the front door and the fridge in the kitchen. I had run out of things to move into the fridge, so something had to give.

He tensed, his fingers hovering over the keyboard.

"It's okay," I said quickly, "you don't have to share. I'm curious, but I don't need to know."

"No," he said slowly, his brow furrowing, his voice low and somewhat troubled. "I do want to share, it's just..." He trailed off, his line of sight focused somewhere over my shoulder. A small sigh escaped him.

I shook my head and held my hands out. "Not to worry. In time, you can tell me. There's no rush."

He hesitated, and I could practically see the gears turning in his head. "Well, it's a game. I'm working on a video game." His face flushed. "Inspired by you."  
It was my turn to flush. "Oh, me?" I slid closer to him on the sofa. "May I?

A look of confusion crossed his face for a second, but then cleared. "Oh, honey, I forgot that you used to be a programmer at Joja Corp. Sorry," he turned his laptop so it was facing me. "It's sloppy and I'm just building out the engine right now. I have some basic things working, like I can get a character walking around, but that's it. It's nothing much really."

I let my fingers brush over the keys. It had only been two years since I had worked for Joja Corp as one of their software developers, but in many ways it felt like it had been much longer. It was hard to remember much about working there other than the grey sheen of _Corporate_ coating everything, and how much I had come to hate it. But as much as I had grown to love farming and foraging, I did miss programming, I realized. There was a certain artistry to writing code that wasn't there in growing crops and pocketing mushrooms. I remembered the days before Joja Corp, back when I was fresh-faced and starry-eyed. Programming had felt like the whole world lay beneath my fingertips, poised, ready, and waiting for my command. Joja Corp had destroyed that feeling in me, and now here I was.

I scrolled through the file he had left open, and clicked around. I wasn't familiar with this software, but it wasn't hard finding the button to run the code. It took a second for the code to compile and the window to open, but what came into view left me agog.

"Oh, Sebastian, this is really really cool." I pressed the arrow keys and watched my character - a miniature version of me - run across the screen, stopping at the edge of a cliff, and walking slowly back. "The graphics already look so polished, and the movement controls are very smooth. It's generally pretty hard getting movement working like this. And," I beamed at him, "your code is nicely laid out. You should've seen my stuff back in the day - I had huge blocks of stuff commented out. Spaghetti code everywhere. It was pretty awful, actually."

"Hm, I'm sure it was fine. As long as it was good enough for Joja, that's all that mattered," he shrugged. "But thank you." He blushed once more and my heart stuttered at the appearance of his boyish smile. "It means a lot to me, coming from you."

"Well," I smoothed out a wrinkle in my jeans, "you mean a lot to me, and I'm beyond thrilled that you shared this with me."

"Of course I'd share it with you," he gave me a shy grin. "I've been wanting to make a game for a long time, as long as I can remember. But I just couldn't, not while I was living at my mom's. I had no motivation, no drive, no inspiration. It took so much energy out of me trying to be civil to Demetrius every day. I always felt like I was a disappointment - the one big failure in that household."

"You're not," I shook my head vigorously. "Definitely not."

He breathed deeply, his hands twisting together in his lap. "I think I know that now. I mean, my brain knew it before, but I couldn't understand and accept it, not when there was so much evidence that I was second to Maru in every way." His hands broke apart and he rested one on my thigh, his fingers tapping phantom keystrokes. "I'm thankful to be here. I need you to know that." His dark gaze was piercing, but there was a warmth in it as well.

I leaned over to give him a peck on the cheek, but he stopped me, grabbing my shoulders. My body tingled at his touch. He pushed the laptop away and shut it, before taking my hand and leading me into the bedroom. He lifted me up onto the bed and stood before me, our legs touching at our knees. Sebastian leaned forward, placing a hand on either side of me on the bed and kissed me deeply. As he pulled back, his gaze was pure tenderness. There was no trace of the tortured soul I had first met two years ago.

"Thank you, " he breathed, pressing his lips to my neck, "thank you for giving me my dreams back."


End file.
